2014 was a busy year, wasn’t it? Between work and travel and events, it was simply packed full of stuff. And somewhere in between all that stuff, I kept committed to activity because it honestly kept me sane– and because I enjoyed it. Now I get to pick through last year’s blog posts and remind myself of my struggles and accomplishments!

I had an adventurous year trying out group exercise classes at the gym. I always find them intimidating at first, but they’re fun! I gave kettlebell class a try, went to a special self-defense class, and started going to a weekly yoga class later in the year.

It was a complicated year for my body image, where mostly I tried to reconcile being strong, active and still fat. I tried to practice radical self-love. Why don’t women’s magazines ever say “Build Bigger Arms” on the cover? Once again I tried tracking protein, and it turned into restricting calories. On the other hand, folks tried to convince me that I was eating too much protein. The only way to win is not to play…

I spent a lot of time with yoga this year, and tried some different things. I went to a new class that was a little strange. I also spent some time thinking about the western practice of yoga (often inspired by talking with Indian colleagues) and how my current practice does very little to honor its history. And after I finished NRoL4W, I spentanentire weekdoing yoga and it changed me; I am trying hard to commit to a weekly yoga class (when I don’t have workshops scheduled over it).

This summer I swam a lot, and it was great! While the weather held and the pool was open, it was definitely my favorite workout. A big part of that might be that I just swim for time– I have no idea of how far I’m going so there’s no pace pressure!